Blackbaud’s Highlights from the 2022 Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum Conference

Last week, Blackbaud sponsored the 2022 Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum conference, the largest annual event focused on the needs of peer-to-peer fundraising professionals. 

Hosted in Atlanta, GA, I attended along with a handful of my Blackbaud colleagues. I even had the privilege of leading a panel discussion with our friends at Chicago Public Library Foundation and Lung Cancer Research Foundation.

It was great to be back at an in-person conference, to see many of our long-time customers and partners, and to network with the leading minds in the field of peer-to-peer fundraising.

As a part of our participation, Blackbaud sponsored the 2022 Cash, Sweat & Tears Award, an annual program which honors an outstanding volunteer participant. 

This year’s award winner was Rachael Chambers, who leads Cisco’s corporate support and engagement with Covenant House International’s Sleep Out program, a series of events in which supporters spend a night outdoors to raise money for services for homeless and runaway youth. Since 2016, Chambers has inspired hundreds of colleagues to participate and helped the Cisco team to raise millions of dollars. 

In honor of Chambers’ passion and dedication, Blackbaud made a contribution to Covenant House International. It’s stories like this that make me proud to work at Blackbaud, where our mission is to help power social good through technology. 

Another highlight of the Forum was the panel discussion that I led along with my colleague Jen Cobb, who works with Blackbaud customers of all kinds to help them make the most of their fundraising and CRM solutions. 

Jen and I were joined by Rachael Everson, Chicago Public Library Foundation’s Development Manager, and Stacey Bowers, Lung Cancer Research Foundation’s Director of Community Engagement and Outreach, for a conversation about how to create connections during a time of shifting expectations. 

Rachael and Stacey shared their valuable insights into how they’ve stayed brave and curious to build deeper, meaningful connections with participants and volunteers by rethinking their peer-to-peer fundraising strategy.  

Some of the session’s top takeaways included:

1. 56% of nonprofit professionals expect some degree of virtual engagement to continue. Now that audiences have had the option to engage virtually, that should continue to be an option.
2. Do not miss this opportunity to re-evaluate, especially the WHO and WHAT.  Be sure that you are engaging in the right segments in ways that are meaningful to them AND your mission. 
3. It is ok to not have the answers…expect that 2022 will NOT be the year our big questions are answered. 
4. Trust yourself – your authenticity is what makes you a good development professional

While the events of the past two years may have kept us apart or changed the way we approach peer-to-peer fundraising, what’s clear from my time spent at the Forum last week is that the level of excitement, engagement, and dedication to fundraising for a good cause remains unchanged.

Learn more about Blackbaud’s involvement in the peer-to-peer fundraising space here.

 

About the Author
Amanda Baldwin is a Solutions Consultant at Blackbaud.  As a solutions consultant, she gets the privilege of aligning customer goals with solutions to help good take over. Previously, Amanda spent 12 years fundraising for several different types of nonprofit organizations, and also served as the executive director for a local chapter of a national organization.  She was a Blackbaud client for many years prior to joining the team.